Merriam named Sportscaster of the Year

Courtesy: SDSU Sports Info Release: 01/11/2013 13:14:17

Related Links

The National Sportscasters
and Sportswriters Association named Tyler Merriam the 2012 South Dakota
Sportscaster of the Year this week for his work broadcasting South Dakota State
football men's basketball and baseball, and for hosting "The Jackrabbit
Insider" over the last year

"It's a real honor. I'm
blessed to work at such a wonderful place with so many talented people that you
can't help but be excited to come to work each day," Merriam said. "And to have my name alongside
those of Steve Imming and Norm Hilson and Tom Maxwell, it's very humbling."

A Pierre native, Merriam
called his first Jackrabbit baseball game in 2006 as an SDSU student, and also
did play-by-play for Jackrabbit softball and volleyball before becoming the
full-time voice of Jackrabbit women's basketball in 2008.

He joined longtime voice
of Jackrabbit football and men's basketball Steve Imming as a color commentator
in the football booth for two years before taking over the play-by-play duties
for both football and men's basketball in 2011.

Merriam joins former "voices
of the Jackrabbits" Norm Hilson, who won the award four times (1972, 73, 80 and
81) and Imming, who earned the honor in 1998, to win South Dakota Sportscaster
of the Year honors.

The NSSA presents a
national award and a state award for both categories each year. Mike Henriksen
of "SportsMax" won the South Dakota Sportscaster of the Year and Terry
Vandrovec of the Sioux Falls Argus Leader
won the Sportswriter of the Year in 2011.

Merriam's cousin Roger
Merriam of the Watertown Public Opinion
won the South Dakota Sportswriter of the Year. Both Tyler and Roger receive
their awards at the 54th Annual NSSA Awards Banquet on June 10, 2013 in
Salisbury, N.C.